Pub Date : 2025-01-09DOI: 10.1016/j.acorp.2025.100119
Pamela Faber
This research analyzed the love fraud event within the context of the Personal_Relation and the Intentional_Deception frame in FrameNet. Of the concepts that characterize this event, the focus was on Relationship, namely, its stages, participants, and dimensions. The data consisted of extended conversations between 83 scammers and the author, which were recorded from January 2021 to June 2024. When the corpus was analyzed on the SketchEngine platform, the collocates of relationship with the highest LogDice scores were identified and structured. The results show that fraudsters use scripts to construct a romantic relationship with victims, which begins with friendship, progresses to ‘soulmateship’ and engagement, and finally ends in an online ‘marriage’. This is accomplished through the strategic use and repetition of terms that belong to the Personal_Relation frame in FrameNet. The objective is to extract as much money as possible from the victim.
{"title":"The personal_relationship frame in love fraud","authors":"Pamela Faber","doi":"10.1016/j.acorp.2025.100119","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.acorp.2025.100119","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This research analyzed the love fraud event within the context of the <span>Personal_Relation</span> and the <span>Intentional_Deception</span> frame in FrameNet. Of the concepts that characterize this event, the focus was on <span>Relationship,</span> namely, its stages, participants, and dimensions. The data consisted of extended conversations between 83 scammers and the author, which were recorded from January 2021 to June 2024. When the corpus was analyzed on the SketchEngine platform, the collocates of <em>relationship</em> with the highest LogDice scores were identified and structured. The results show that fraudsters use scripts to construct a romantic relationship with victims, which begins with friendship, progresses to ‘soulmateship’ and engagement, and finally ends in an online ‘marriage’. This is accomplished through the strategic use and repetition of terms that belong to the <span>Personal_Relation</span> frame in FrameNet. The objective is to extract as much money as possible from the victim.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":72254,"journal":{"name":"Applied Corpus Linguistics","volume":"5 1","pages":"Article 100119"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143159795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-09DOI: 10.1016/j.acorp.2025.100118
Madison Hunter, Tim Grant
This article evaluates the reliability, efficiency, and effectiveness of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Boyd et al., 2022) for the analysis of a white nationalist forum. This is important because LIWC has been the computational tool of choice for scores of studies generally and many examining extremist content in a forensic or security context. Our purpose, therefore, is to understand whether LIWC can be depended upon for large-scale analyses; we initially examine this here using a small sample of posts from a set of just eight users and manually checking the program's automated codings of a subset of categories. Our results show that the LIWC coding cannot be relied upon – precision falls to as low as 49.6 % and recall as low as 41.7 % for some categories. It would be possible to engage in considerable manual correction of these results, but this undermines its purported efficiency for large datasets.
本文评估了语言查询和单词计数(LIWC)的可靠性、效率和有效性。Boyd et al., 2022)对白人民族主义论坛的分析。这一点很重要,因为LIWC一直是许多研究和许多在法医或安全环境中检查极端主义内容的首选计算工具。因此,我们的目的是了解LIWC是否可以用于大规模分析;在这里,我们首先使用来自仅8个用户的帖子的小样本来检查这一点,并手动检查程序对类别子集的自动编码。我们的结果表明,LIWC编码不可靠,某些类别的准确率低至49.6%,召回率低至41.7%。对这些结果进行大量的人工校正是可能的,但这破坏了它对大型数据集的据称效率。
{"title":"Is LIWC reliable, efficient, and effective for the analysis of large online datasets in forensic and security contexts?","authors":"Madison Hunter, Tim Grant","doi":"10.1016/j.acorp.2025.100118","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.acorp.2025.100118","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article evaluates the reliability, efficiency, and effectiveness of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Boyd et al., 2022) for the analysis of a white nationalist forum. This is important because LIWC has been the computational tool of choice for scores of studies generally and many examining extremist content in a forensic or security context. Our purpose, therefore, is to understand whether LIWC can be depended upon for large-scale analyses; we initially examine this here using a small sample of posts from a set of just eight users and manually checking the program's automated codings of a subset of categories. Our results show that the LIWC coding cannot be relied upon – precision falls to as low as 49.6 % and recall as low as 41.7 % for some categories. It would be possible to engage in considerable manual correction of these results, but this undermines its purported efficiency for large datasets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":72254,"journal":{"name":"Applied Corpus Linguistics","volume":"5 1","pages":"Article 100118"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143159794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100110
David Oakey , Benet Vincent
This article provides an overview of the papers in the special issue of Applied Corpus Linguistics on “Corpus Linguistics and the Language of COVID-19: Applications and Outcomes”. As noted in our original call for contributions, we believe that, while traditional corpus linguistic work can reveal valuable insights into the emerging language around COVID-19, it should be complemented by more applied corpus linguistics work. The pandemic posed a real-world problem which applied corpus linguists were well equipped to address using linguistic evidence from a range of sources. This article presents an introduction to the papers in this special issue which will be of interest to applied corpus linguists due to the variety of perspectives they present in relation to a number of key issues of importance to the field: the data they draw on, the various theoretical frameworks which inform the research, the methods they use to collect and analyse the data, and the discussion of how their findings may be applicable to citizens, decision makers, consumers and other stakeholders in public and private contexts.
{"title":"Introductory editorial synthesis paper: Corpus linguistics and the language of COVID-19: Applications and outcomes","authors":"David Oakey , Benet Vincent","doi":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100110","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100110","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article provides an overview of the papers in the special issue of Applied Corpus Linguistics on “Corpus Linguistics and the Language of COVID-19: Applications and Outcomes”. As noted in our original call for contributions, we believe that, while traditional corpus linguistic work can reveal valuable insights into the emerging language around COVID-19, it should be complemented by more applied corpus linguistics work. The pandemic posed a real-world problem which applied corpus linguists were well equipped to address using linguistic evidence from a range of sources. This article presents an introduction to the papers in this special issue which will be of interest to applied corpus linguists due to the variety of perspectives they present in relation to a number of key issues of importance to the field: the data they draw on, the various theoretical frameworks which inform the research, the methods they use to collect and analyse the data, and the discussion of how their findings may be applicable to citizens, decision makers, consumers and other stakeholders in public and private contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":72254,"journal":{"name":"Applied Corpus Linguistics","volume":"4 3","pages":"Article 100110"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143098309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100112
David Chandler, Brett Hashimoto
{"title":"Corrigendum to “here-, there-, and every where-: Exploring the role of pronominal adverbs in legal language” [Applied Corpus Linguistics Volume 4, Issue 1 (2024) 100087]","authors":"David Chandler, Brett Hashimoto","doi":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100112","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100112","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":72254,"journal":{"name":"Applied Corpus Linguistics","volume":"4 3","pages":"Article 100112"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143098310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-15DOI: 10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100115
Chen Chen , Philip Durrant
Despite the substantial body of research on vocabulary in English Medium Instruction (EMI), there is a noticeable dearth of corpus-based studies examining lexical complexity of EMI lectures, particularly in specific disciplines. To fill this gap, this study developed an EMI spoken academic corpus in Business (EMIB) with 120 lectures collected from 54 lecturers with nine different first languages (L1), reaching 1.12 million tokens. The study compared the lexical complexity of EMI Business lectures in China with academic lectures in Anglophone and non-Anglophone settings, represented by teachers’ speech in the British Academic Spoken English Corpus (BASE) and the Corpus of English as a Lingua Franca in Academic Settings (ELFA), respectively. Lexical complexity was conceptualised by lexical sophistication (operationalised by lexical frequency profile and mean frequency band score) and lexical diversity (operationalised by the VOCD-D). Results show that ELFA has significantly higher lexical sophistication than BASE, and significantly lower lexical diversity than BASE and EMIB. This study further explored whether speaker L1, speaker gender, and discipline contributed to the lexical complexity of lectures using multiple linear regression with interaction terms. Results show that speaker L1 and discipline significantly impacted the lexical complexity of lectures. Pedagogical implications are discussed.
{"title":"Lexical complexity in academic lectures: Comparative analysis of EMI and Non-EMI settings and influential factors","authors":"Chen Chen , Philip Durrant","doi":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100115","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100115","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the substantial body of research on vocabulary in English Medium Instruction (EMI), there is a noticeable dearth of corpus-based studies examining lexical complexity of EMI lectures, particularly in specific disciplines. To fill this gap, this study developed an EMI spoken academic corpus in Business (EMIB) with 120 lectures collected from 54 lecturers with nine different first languages (L1), reaching 1.12 million tokens. The study compared the lexical complexity of EMI Business lectures in China with academic lectures in Anglophone and non-Anglophone settings, represented by teachers’ speech in the British Academic Spoken English Corpus (BASE) and the Corpus of English as a Lingua Franca in Academic Settings (ELFA), respectively. Lexical complexity was conceptualised by lexical sophistication (operationalised by lexical frequency profile and mean frequency band score) and lexical diversity (operationalised by the VOCD-D). Results show that ELFA has significantly higher lexical sophistication than BASE, and significantly lower lexical diversity than BASE and EMIB. This study further explored whether speaker L1, speaker gender, and discipline contributed to the lexical complexity of lectures using multiple linear regression with interaction terms. Results show that speaker L1 and discipline significantly impacted the lexical complexity of lectures. Pedagogical implications are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":72254,"journal":{"name":"Applied Corpus Linguistics","volume":"4 3","pages":"Article 100115"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142701201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-13DOI: 10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100117
Jordan Batchelor
This paper discusses two approaches for identifying lexical patterns in discourse, namely the corpus linguistic method of collocation analysis and the natural language processing method of word embeddings. While both approaches can identify lexical patterns, they approach the task with different underlying frameworks, and the extent to which their results resemble one another has not been directly compared. This study uses two corpora, five collocation measures, and two word embedding algorithms to generate such comparisons. Results generally support the notion that many word pairs with similar embeddings are collocates, and that, to a lesser extent, many collocates have similar word embeddings. However, a major difference is that word pairs with similar embeddings do not need to co-occur often, or at all. Moreover, systematic differences in the kinds of words highlighted between the two word embedding algorithms were found and are discussed.
{"title":"Getting into bed with embeddings? A comparison of collocations and word embeddings for corpus-assisted discourse analysis","authors":"Jordan Batchelor","doi":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100117","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100117","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper discusses two approaches for identifying lexical patterns in discourse, namely the corpus linguistic method of collocation analysis and the natural language processing method of word embeddings. While both approaches can identify lexical patterns, they approach the task with different underlying frameworks, and the extent to which their results resemble one another has not been directly compared. This study uses two corpora, five collocation measures, and two word embedding algorithms to generate such comparisons. Results generally support the notion that many word pairs with similar embeddings are collocates, and that, to a lesser extent, many collocates have similar word embeddings. However, a major difference is that word pairs with similar embeddings do not need to co-occur often, or at all. Moreover, systematic differences in the kinds of words highlighted between the two word embedding algorithms were found and are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":72254,"journal":{"name":"Applied Corpus Linguistics","volume":"4 3","pages":"Article 100117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142659058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-06DOI: 10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100116
Hsiao-Ling Hsu , Shu-Li Lai , Hao-Jan Howard Chen
Given the benefits of incorporating corpora into language learning, particularly in developing students’ abilities to observe and analyze language data, this study investigated Taiwanese in-service senior high school English teachers’ corpus literacy, their application of corpus tools in teaching, and the effects of an online corpus workshop. Conducted in two stages, the first involved collecting 151 teachers’ perceptions of corpus literacy and its applications from 141 schools across Taiwan. The second stage invited teachers across Taiwan to participate in an online corpus workshop, where corpus-based teaching and two tools (SKELL and Sketch Engine) were introduced, along with hands-on activities. Following the workshop, the participants completed a post-survey. The analysis of the pre-survey responses revealed a positive attitude toward but limited understanding of corpus use among teachers before attending the workshop. The Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, used to analyze the pre- and post-survey responses, showed significant improvements in the teachers’ corpus literacy and application skills after the workshop. The findings of this study offer valuable insights into corpus use among in-service teachers in various contexts. Future research should explore the further integration of corpus tools into classrooms and include in-depth interviews for more comprehensive insights.
{"title":"Examining in-service senior high school English teachers’ perspectives on corpus use and the effects of corpus training","authors":"Hsiao-Ling Hsu , Shu-Li Lai , Hao-Jan Howard Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100116","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100116","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Given the benefits of incorporating corpora into language learning, particularly in developing students’ abilities to observe and analyze language data, this study investigated Taiwanese in-service senior high school English teachers’ corpus literacy, their application of corpus tools in teaching, and the effects of an online corpus workshop. Conducted in two stages, the first involved collecting 151 teachers’ perceptions of corpus literacy and its applications from 141 schools across Taiwan. The second stage invited teachers across Taiwan to participate in an online corpus workshop, where corpus-based teaching and two tools (SKELL and Sketch Engine) were introduced, along with hands-on activities. Following the workshop, the participants completed a post-survey. The analysis of the pre-survey responses revealed a positive attitude toward but limited understanding of corpus use among teachers before attending the workshop. The Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, used to analyze the pre- and post-survey responses, showed significant improvements in the teachers’ corpus literacy and application skills after the workshop. The findings of this study offer valuable insights into corpus use among in-service teachers in various contexts. Future research should explore the further integration of corpus tools into classrooms and include in-depth interviews for more comprehensive insights.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":72254,"journal":{"name":"Applied Corpus Linguistics","volume":"4 3","pages":"Article 100116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142659057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-28DOI: 10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100113
Stephen Eyman
This corpus-based study analyzes the use of conventionalized phrases in disability policy. Specifically, it focuses on the three phrases made common by the Americans with Disabilities Act: qualified individual with a disability, reasonable accommodations, and interactive process. These three phrases are analyzed in the context of disability policy at 2-year and 4-year public colleges in California. A corpus of disability policies was created for each of these contexts and analyzed to better understand the varied implementation of conventionalized phrases across contexts. The study finds that the three phrases from the ADA have been diffused across higher education disability policies in the corpora created and are highly conventionalized in these contexts. Additionally, these phrases can be used with slightly different valences depending on the context. These differences in use appear to be directly related to the relationship between the three phrases themselves and they mirror debates in disability policy such as that around the modal ‘may’ in relation to whether or not an institution implements an interactive process. Furthermore, institutional differences in the implementation of these phrases is potentially related to the stances institutions take towards disability and disability policy.
{"title":"Conventionalized phrases and disability policy: A corpus analysis of 2-year and 4-year public colleges in California","authors":"Stephen Eyman","doi":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100113","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100113","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This corpus-based study analyzes the use of conventionalized phrases in disability policy. Specifically, it focuses on the three phrases made common by the Americans with Disabilities Act: qualified individual with a disability, reasonable accommodations, and interactive process. These three phrases are analyzed in the context of disability policy at 2-year and 4-year public colleges in California. A corpus of disability policies was created for each of these contexts and analyzed to better understand the varied implementation of conventionalized phrases across contexts. The study finds that the three phrases from the ADA have been diffused across higher education disability policies in the corpora created and are highly conventionalized in these contexts. Additionally, these phrases can be used with slightly different valences depending on the context. These differences in use appear to be directly related to the relationship between the three phrases themselves and they mirror debates in disability policy such as that around the modal ‘may’ in relation to whether or not an institution implements an interactive process. Furthermore, institutional differences in the implementation of these phrases is potentially related to the stances institutions take towards disability and disability policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":72254,"journal":{"name":"Applied Corpus Linguistics","volume":"4 3","pages":"Article 100113"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142659056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-23DOI: 10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100114
Yoshiho Satake
The strengths of corpora in language learning have been stated, while not many studies have explored the effects of feedback on error correction in the settings of data-driven learning (DDL), which is an approach where learners use corpora to learn language patterns inductively. Therefore, this study examines the effects of feedback on second language (L2) error correction with corpus use. The author hypothesizes that seeing many example sentences of the target word(s) with corpus use is useful in correcting L2 errors and that different sources of feedback have different effects on error correction. To test the hypotheses, the effects of teacher feedback on 55 participants’ error correction with use of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) were compared with those of peer feedback along with those of self-feedback. The results show that teacher feedback especially worked well for correcting omission errors and agreement errors. The strength of teacher feedback was identifying correctable errors. The results suggest that efficient corpus use for error correction requires teachers to consider appropriate combinations of feedback and error types (e.g., teacher feedback for omission errors and agreement errors).
{"title":"The effects of teacher, peer and self-feedback on error correction with corpus use","authors":"Yoshiho Satake","doi":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100114","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100114","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The strengths of corpora in language learning have been stated, while not many studies have explored the effects of feedback on error correction in the settings of data-driven learning (DDL), which is an approach where learners use corpora to learn language patterns inductively. Therefore, this study examines the effects of feedback on second language (L2) error correction with corpus use. The author hypothesizes that seeing many example sentences of the target word(s) with corpus use is useful in correcting L2 errors and that different sources of feedback have different effects on error correction. To test the hypotheses, the effects of teacher feedback on 55 participants’ error correction with use of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) were compared with those of peer feedback along with those of self-feedback. The results show that teacher feedback especially worked well for correcting omission errors and agreement errors. The strength of teacher feedback was identifying correctable errors. The results suggest that efficient corpus use for error correction requires teachers to consider appropriate combinations of feedback and error types (e.g., teacher feedback for omission errors and agreement errors).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":72254,"journal":{"name":"Applied Corpus Linguistics","volume":"4 3","pages":"Article 100114"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142586523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-18DOI: 10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100109
Zhuohan Hou , Vahid Aryadoust , Azrifah Zakaria
As incorporating visual modes in listening tests is gradually gaining traction in second language (L2) assessment, the inclusion of such visuals brings up questions about the role of visual modes in meaning-making during listening and test validity. In this study, we investigated the visual features of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) listening test through the application of the social semiotic multimodal framework. Our corpus comprised 300 visuals from 256 academic listening testlets published between 1996 and 2022. Unlike the past studies of social semiotic multimodal analyses that relied on qualitative methods, our study adopted a series of visualization and quantitative statistical analysis of frequency and dispersion measures, using the general linear model to examine the visuals from a social semiotic multimodal perspective. The results revealed significant variation in the visual structures of the testlets. Through applying a post-hoc analysis, we further proposed recommendations for further research on multimodal materials in listening assessment and discussed the implications of the observed variation for the validity of the IELTS listening test. This study may be considered the first attempt to examine L2 listening assessment from a corpus-based social semiotic multimodal perspective, which may inspire more investigations on multimodal listening.
{"title":"Investigating the visual content of a commercialized academic listening test: Implications for validity","authors":"Zhuohan Hou , Vahid Aryadoust , Azrifah Zakaria","doi":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100109","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100109","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As incorporating visual modes in listening tests is gradually gaining traction in second language (L2) assessment, the inclusion of such visuals brings up questions about the role of visual modes in meaning-making during listening and test validity. In this study, we investigated the visual features of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) listening test through the application of the social semiotic multimodal framework. Our corpus comprised 300 visuals from 256 academic listening testlets published between 1996 and 2022. Unlike the past studies of social semiotic multimodal analyses that relied on qualitative methods, our study adopted a series of visualization and quantitative statistical analysis of frequency and dispersion measures, using the general linear model to examine the visuals from a social semiotic multimodal perspective. The results revealed significant variation in the visual structures of the testlets. Through applying a post-hoc analysis, we further proposed recommendations for further research on multimodal materials in listening assessment and discussed the implications of the observed variation for the validity of the IELTS listening test. This study may be considered the first attempt to examine L2 listening assessment from a corpus-based social semiotic multimodal perspective, which may inspire more investigations on multimodal listening.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":72254,"journal":{"name":"Applied Corpus Linguistics","volume":"4 3","pages":"Article 100109"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142537362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}